IBEX ENA Theseuse Map

Read full text
Authors: S. J. Noh, D. B. Reisenfeld, Dave Osthus, Lauren J. Beesley, Thomas K. Kim, Paul Janzen, Nehpreet Kaur Walia
Cited by: 1

Abstract

This dataset provides 14 years of heliospheric energetic neutral atom (ENA) sky maps derived from observations by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). IBEX is an Earth-orbiting spacecraft that spins at approximately 4 revolutions per minute (rpm), with its spin axis pointed toward the Sun. It carries two single-pixel ENA detectors that observe ENAs arriving perpendicular to the spin axis.The dataset includes ENA observations from the five highest energy channels (ESAs 2–6) of the IBEX-Hi instrument, covering central energies from 0.71 to 4.29 keV (approximately 0.5–6 keV when accounting for the full energy passbands). The data contains observations from 2009 to 2022.The sky maps are constructed using two recently developed statistical methods that are published online: (i) The Theseus map-making framework (D. Osthus et al. 2023), and (ii) a ribbon separation method (L. J. Beesley et al. 2023). These approaches improve the reconstruction of ENA spatial structure, enabling clearer resolution of heliospheric features, more robust separation of the ENA ribbon from the globally distributed flux (GDF), and an improved quantification of uncertainty. All maps are Compton–Getting (C–G) corrected, which accounts for the relative motion between ENAs and Earth’s orbital frame.

Publication details

Journal / source
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Publication date
19 April 2026
Document type
Dataset